Basilisk

Classics on Ektoplazm: http://www.ektoplazm.com/style/classic I'm always looking to add new classics to the catalogue. If anyone out there would like to interface with rights owners to prepare classic material for a Creative Commons re-release, please feel welcome to do so I keep all the technical requirements here: http://www.ektoplazm.com/distribution

As with any style of music you can expect 95% to be junk. The best darkpsy is not at all random; take Gappeq, Derango, Psykovsky, CPC, Atriohm, Furious, Ghreg On Earth, etc. Nothing random about these guys, nor will you find any particular emphasis on demons and such. To take one example, Ghreg On Earth has developed an extremely interesting cosmology, a kind of Clive Barkeresque universe of the psychedelic fantastic. His body of work has nothing in common with the stereotypical concept of darkpsy as expressed here, not if you're paying attention anyhow. When you dip into the remaining 95% you will certainly find music that approximates the stereotype. Some of this can be explained by the unusually participatory culture of darkpsy: many of its most devoted fans also create the music. Remember, it was within darkpsy that a free music movement in psytrance first originated in any serious capacity. So yes, there is a lot of garbage out there with next to zero musical value--but this is not what the style should be judged on.

Listening now... I am too young to have lived through those days but I figure this is what I would have been listening to at the time

Here we are http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/crossing-mind-ultimate-reality

This may surprise you but I shoot with a Nikon D40, kit lens and all. It was just about the cheapest DSLR on the market when new. If you go out and buy a low end Nikon DSLR you will probably get comparable quality. A lot of what I do takes place in the processing stage... I use Lightroom to tweak and twist everything.

I don't think anyone is calling it psytrance.

Nah, it's just an occasional hobby. By professional standards I'm not any good.

...

April Fools is only on the first day of the month

I am a huge fan of The Knife, Fever Ray, and the various off-shoots and spin-offs of this project (e.g. Olof's minimal techno work). They are very unique and unusual.

Didn't like it much on a first listen, but I'm not much of a pop music kind of guy. Still, I'm going to give it a chance. I wasn't sure of the last album when it came out but I grew to really love it. Sometimes when an artist does something risky you need to let it settle for a while before coming to any strong conclusions.

Sounds good so far... not as immediately impressive as 2AM but there are some decent tracks here. I wish "The Programmer" were a lot longer and more developed though.

Turkish Bazaar for me... try the Massimo Vivona remix.

I suggest getting into Google Reader and subscribing to the RSS feeds of a few good science blogs. Here are some I read regularly: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/ http://lifeunbounded.blogspot.com/ http://planetary.org/blog/ http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/ http://www.realclimate.org/ http://bigthink.com/blogs/eruptions http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/ http://www.skepticalscience.com/

I wouldn't go so far as to say that bad mixing killed psytrance or anything (it didn't) but I actually agree with the general sentiment expressed in Max Factor's rant. I think we can all agree that good mixing is desirable... but I would argue that good mixing is particularly important for psychedelic trance, and it isn't purely a matter of aesthetics (i.e. that it sounds good). Now, at the risk of sounding a bit mystical, trance parties are somewhat different in that there is this presumption that we gather to access different states of consciousness. This can be achieved through drugs, dance, or other stimuli, but in its most basic form the idea is to enter into states of hypnosis, heightened awareness, or liminality (a state of being in between, or on the threshold of, important life stages or decisions). I suspect it is the same sort of place accessed by the whirling dervishes, self-flagellating monks, or other seekers that employ repetitive trance-inducing actions to short circuit everyday awareness to have a spiritual (or at least insightful and rewarding) experience. The problem is that bad mixing breaks the spell. The dervish trips and tumbles. If you were zoning out you will be sucked back into the here and now. It reduces the trance experience to something mundane: just another party with a DJ playing some hot tunes. For this reason, I feel that psytrance DJs have a responsibility to take what they do seriously. That seriousness should be in proportion to the seriousness of the event. If it's your mate's house party then whatever... but for those jocks that play for crowds of thousands at peak moments it is rather important to mix as well as possible. Surprisingly, there are a lot of big names that regularly botch mixes. That's bad, but there are also the petty tyrants of local scenes: the hotshot organizer that gets wasted and trainwrecks his or her way through peak time. Sometimes you have to work with these people but you know something about the event is going to be way off for a good number of people. Not much you can really do except impress upon others the importance of good mixing. It isn't just because it sounds nice... good mixing counts for a lot in this culture--or at least it should. One final note: at least I can say that the mixing situation has improved over the years. Psytrance certainly isn't dead!

Three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and old school Goa fans groaning about some artist who make music they liked a decade ago is doing something else now (probably to make money).

Seems like we have four main hypotheses here: 1) Money: artists change their style because it is profitable. 2) Drugs: artists change their style because of doing more drugs, less drugs, the wrong drugs, or some combination thereof. 3) Boredom: artists change their style because they get bored. 4) Age: artists change their style because they get old. (Plus having children might cause some lifestyle changes.) Sound about right? I might propose two more: 5) Fame: artists change their style because psytrance is the black sheep of electronic music and you can't really get far with it. 6) Disgust: artists change their style because they are tired of being ripped off in the psytrance scene. I tend to think some combination of all these might be likely... but you would have to look at specific cases to know for sure. The money hypothesis is the weakest of all IMO. Not many artists make a great deal of money making other styles of music either. Even if they do you can't know that it wasn't a change in musical interest that motivated the change in the first place. Maybe this discussion would move forward if we consider some test cases. Perhaps someone can speculate what factors are likely involved in the creative trajectories of these ten artists: 12 Moons Etnica GMS Infected Mushroom James Monro MFG Synchro Ticon Wizzy Noise Yumade I think anyone knowledgeable will realize that generalizations will not work here. Each case is different.

SENTNA - MONOTONIC FUNCTION OF THETA 01 - Monotonic Function Of Theta (137 BPM) 02 - What's Wrong With The Planet (138 BPM) 03 - Full Off Moving Your Head (136 BPM) 04 - Escaping Velocity (137 BPM) 05 - Big Electron (145 BPM) 06 - The Never Body (138 BPM) 07 - Spinning Molecules (140 BPM) Monotonic Function Of Theta is the third solo album by Sentna (Apostolis K.), a Greek producer specializing in a heavy-handed variety of psychedelic techtrance. Released by Ektoplazm, this mini-album bristles with raw industrial power, dirty atmospheres, razor-sharp leads, and a full-on drive. Mastered by Southwild (Jay Kerner) with cover art by Sentna. Download it for free in MP3/FLAC/WAV direct from Ektoplazm: http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/sentna-monotonic-function-of-theta

The remix trend has died down a lot, hasn't it? Or maybe it's just grown more subtle (reference: Psykovsky's recent 2CD album).

LUMINEXIA & SUNSET HUNTERS - TOUCH THE SOUND 01 - Luminexia - Magnotech (144 BPM) 02 - Luminexia - Space Travelling (146 BPM) 03 - Sunset Hunters - Solar Eclipse (145 BPM) 04 - Sunset Hunters - Let It Go (142 BPM) Touch The Sound is a joint release between two closely related Russian projects, Luminexia (Slava Sherstyuk) & Sunset Hunters (Slava Sherstyuk & Natalia Zinovieva AKA DJane Satori). Based in St. Petersburg, these projects aim to infuse high-tech full-on psytrance with a range of moods from haunting and mysterious twilight vibes to radiant morning trance energized with the light of the rising sun. Sunset Hunters also has the addition of live guitar to add an exotic dimension to their sound on this release. Mastered by Syncmasters Studio. Cover design by Basilisk using a photo by Kyle Kruchok. Released in 2011 by Ektoplazm. Download it for free in MP3/FLAC/WAV: http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/luminexia-sunset-hunters-touch-the-sound

PERFECT BLIND - THREE SPIRES 01 - Ethernion II (92 BPM) 02 - Nimbus Cloud (99 BPM) 03 - Shrouding (108 BPM) 04 - Exosphere (108 BPM) 05 - Train Of Thoughts (2009 Mix) (108 BPM) 06 - Passing Nebulae (113 BPM) 07 - Coming Home (85 BPM) 08 - The Three Spires (113 BPM) Omnitropic proudly presents Three Spires, the beautiful debut album from Perfect Blind (Igor Čeranić), a downtempo and deep trance producer from Zagreb, Croatia. Prepare to be tantalized by a disarming set of celestial melodies, hypnotic rhythms, and glimmering cosmic atmospheres as Perfect Blind navigates this sonic starship through the dark reaches of outer space into the inner chambers of a pulsating stellar womb. This majestic journey is sure to appeal to all fans of the Ultimae Records sound. Download it for free in MP3/FLAC/WAV direct from Ektoplazm: http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/perfect-blind-three-spires

I'm still hoping for a properly mastered release...

152 in 2010 alone. Sorry for not procuring that list in a more timely fashion

Come on slackers, get it together!

TACTIC TECH - MECHANISM 1. Calgary (128 BPM) 2. Mechanism (128 BPM) 3. ReRun (130 BPM) 4. Angels (125 BPM) Mechanism is a new collection of bold and brawny techno tunes by Serbian newcomer Tactic Tech (Nikola Markovski). After several releases on various imprints such as Silvernoise Records (UK) and Picche Records (Italy), Tactic Tech presents his first stand-alone release on Drumlore, a Canadian netlabel dedicated to progressive techno with a psychedelic touch. Prepare to hear fat and heavy beats with glimmering atmospheres and a deep dance floor drive perfect for the night-time hours. Download it for free in MP3/FLAC/WAV! http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/tactic-tech-mechanism http://drumlore.com/release/tactic-tech-mechanism/